Suggestion and tip for those using in the ear devices to hear speech more clearly

Hi. I thought this post might help anyone using in the ear hearing aids like mine which are the Phonak Infinio Virto Titaniums, but I guess it could apply to RICs as well.

I have low frequency hearing loss and so I use a custom set of in ears, the Virtos, which are basically unvented, other than the pressure vent, to retain the max low frequency.
Another reason I use the virtos, is because I am blind and have no eyesight and the smallness of these devices deep inside my ears gives me back that special localisation which helps me pinpoint sound.

I noticed that the background noise reduction on these was actually very good. I don’t have a lot of trouble with speech in noise compared to others I’m aware of, but what I found when wearing the hearing aids, is that lots of noise can sound very overwhelming and all becomes very blurry and indistinct.
If i’m in the kitchen and talking to my wife for example and she puts on the kettle or the microwave, suddenly that sound becomes totally overwhelming. I do not want Autosense trying to switch programs, because that really disorientates me given I use the hA’s to navigate my environment.

It’s weird, but I can pick out speech in noise better without the hearing aids. The magic of haircells vs tiny microphones I guess.

I tried using the speech enhancer setting and absolutely hated it.
Then I tried something new. I made a custom program with my audiologist based on the music program to let the most natural sound in, but then turned up the noise reduction to about half way. I think it goes from 0 to 20 in the Phonak software and I believe we have it set to about 13.
This is all we’ve done. music program, feedback manager off, no wind block, no speech enhancement, nothing else set, just the noise reduction.

The result is, the loud noises have the edge taken off, so that kettle wooshing or microwave drone is now decreased by a few DB, but it keeps the speech coming through and actually the speech isn’t mangled.

I actualy thought I’d only use this in certain situations, that it would be really disorientating for environmental navigation, but for whatever reason, I tend to leave it on and it works really well for most situations which surprised both myself and my audi. I’d describe it more like natural hearing, in that when you hear naturally, a microwave won’t blow your head off. it’s there, but it doesn’t become overpowering. I can still hear my environment, but at a tolerable level. Best of all it seems to have little to no effect on battery life.

I realise this is a very specific situation and not many people use unvented devices, but maybe give this a try if you feel you’re being a bit overwhelmed by all the noise. I have 3 programs which I use, a music one which lets all the natural sound in, the one I’m describing with half noise block and then a full noise block for very specific noisy situations. I find if I toggle between those 3 I can usually get what I want out of the aids.

I am now using the program with omnidirectional mic mode as my default general program all day long without switching to any other program.